A Bit About Bits and Bullets

06/06/2006 by Steve Farber

I find it odd that the very technology that’s meant to bring people together (email, cell phones, internet, etc. etc.) can also serve to extract the humanness from our interactions with each other. From an upcoming book called What’s Your Story by my friend, Craig Wortmann, President and CEO of WisdomTools, these hints about how to know when you’re “abusing bits and bullets” of information:

You frequently use your BlackBerry to arrange your next meeting while sitting in your current meeting…

You are in a one-on-one meeting, and you lose track of what your colleague is saying because you are reading email…

You’ve never actually met 80% of the people you work with…

You can’t put down your cell phone long enough to rob a bank, so you just keep talking on it while you execute the theft (yes, this actually happened)…

Craig’s solution to the lifeless bits and bullets mode of “communication” lies in our willingness and ability to use stories, which, he says, “bring back back the context, the color, the feeling and the meaning of our work.”

About Steve Farber

About Steve Farber

Steve Farber, founder of The Extreme Leadership Institute, is a popular keynote speaker and leadership expert. He’s the bestselling author of The Radical Leap, The Radical Edge, and Greater Than Yourself.